Virtual Events
Lydia Farrell – …Song of the Dark
February 6 - May 17
Tuesday, February 6, 2024 – Friday, May 17, 2024
Opening Reception: Tuesday, February 6, 2024, 5:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. MT
Rotunda Gallery
Gallery Hours: 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. MT
The Galleries at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design are thrilled to present …Song of the Dark, showcasing the exceptional artistic vision of local talent, Lydia Farrell. Join us for the opening reception on Tuesday, February 6, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Rotunda Gallery. This event coincides with the simultaneous openings of two exhibitions in RMCAD’s Philip J. Steele Gallery, West of Federal by Esteban Cabeza de Baca and Stay the Course by Catherine Haggarty.
Haggarty will also present a Visiting Artist, Scholar, and Designer Program artist talk in the Mary Harris Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. Additionally, RMCAD student and Fine Arts major Nicole Cassidy’s solo exhibition Laundry will be on view in the Rude Gallery. Immerse yourself in an evening of diverse artistic expressions across four compelling exhibitions at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.
About Lydia Farrell
Lydia Farrell is an artist working in Littleton, CO, where they also grew up. They earned a BA from Knox College, a post-baccalaureate certificate from Brandeis University, and an MFA from Boston University in 2015. Farrell returned to Colorado in 2016. Witnessing the changes to Denver’s suburbs continues to be a meaningful point of inspiration for them. They have participated in residencies in Beijing, China, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Art Students League of New York residency at VYT.
Lydia Farrell’s work subverts common suburban cliches in their paintings. Throughout this body of work we see much more than cookie-cutter houses, heavily manicured landscaping, and bland lives being lived. Instead we see fantastic, humorous, and dark scenes drawn from Lydia’s personal experiences and their playful imagination. Many works depict rituals and symbols of Satanism and other supernatural mysteries set in a suburban landscape. Farrell’s work often collapses architecture and landscape into a single image, complicating the depiction of space and depth. Vivid colors and chaotic compositions also create visual confusion, such as mistaking a sky on fire for just another Colorado sunset. Tombstones and graveyards, lightning and electrical lines, ghouls, shrouded figures, and skeletons fill these paintings and inject the pastoral landscape with devilish glee.
